Linkedin

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, is believed to be have been hacked and lost 6.5 million passwords, according to various reports. The company, however, has yet to confirm the cyber attack but has said it is investigating the claim. Reports around the Web say 6.5 million passwords were posted to a Russian hacker site. The passwords are encrypted and hashed, according to reports, but that hasn't made them unbreakable. Among the stolen passwords, 300,000 are believed to have been cracked, according to The Next Web . And one cyber security expert has reportedly said LinkedIn's attacker has requested help cracking the passwords.

Although much of the buzz about LinkedIn on Wednesday has been about an external breach of security, it seems that LinkedIn has been doing a little privacy breaching of its own. The iOS app recently updated to make your calendar accessible to you within the app may do more with the information associated with your appointments than you know. The app syncs your calendar to seamlessly provide LinkedIn profile information about the people you're scheduled to meet with. Researchers Yair Amit and Adi Sharabani found that the app automatically sends your calendar entries, complete with meeting notes, back to LinkedIn's servers, once you've enabled the opt-in calendar function.

EHarmony, the popular online dating site, was the target of a password hacking attack that resulted in 1.5 million stolen passwords, most of which have been cracked. The attack is believed to be by the same hacker who stole 6.5 million passwords from LinkedIn, the career-oriented social network. The hacker posted two lists containing the 8 million passwords on the website insidepro.com, on which the user goes by the name of "dwdm. " The larger list contained some passwords LinkedIn has now confirmed as belonging to its social network.  and a significant number of the passwords on the smaller list contained the words "eHarmony" or "harmony," according to Ars Technica . EHarmony has confirmed that some of its passwords were stolen.

Wall Street didn't get the Facebook effect it was hoping for. In a sign that the social networking giant may have already become a bellwether for its sector, shares of virtually every social media company sank Friday with Facebook Inc.'s lackluster debut on the stock market. Anticipating that Facebook would have a big day, investors had loaded up on social media stocks in recent weeks. Many backpedaled when Facebook's shares barely budged, rising just 23 cents, or less than 1%, from the initial public offering price of $38. "They were playing for a pop and didn't get it," said Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities.

There wasn't much to like about Facebook's first day as a public company. The social media giant's stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering. The shares closed at $38.23, barely above the $38 IPO price. The performance fell far short of the grandiose expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on. "There was all this pressure and hype and attention with all eyes on Facebook - and the starlet tripped on the red carpet," said Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

The newly launched LinkedIn app for Windows Phone includes features that neither iPhone nor Android users see in their apps. The app includes two sections that don't appear in the other two apps: jobs and companies. Users can browse relevant jobs and save them for pursuing later. The app also lets users follow news and updates from specific companies. While this is exclusive to Windows Phone, it's worth noting that the app doesn't seem to incorporate the calendar function now present in the iOS apps.

LinkedIn Corp., the biggest professional-networking website, rose to the highest price since its market debut after reporting first-quarter sales and profit that beat analysts' estimates amid a jump in membership. LinkedIn advanced 8.9% to $118.88 at 6:50 a.m., the highest level since it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2011. The shares have more than doubled since then. LinkedIn said membership increased to 161 million from 150 million in the fourth quarter. Chief Executive Jeff Weiner is pushing mobile technology to woo more professionals to its subscription services and attract advertisers who want to reach the growing user base.

SAN FRANCISCO - It looks likeGoogle Inc.won't be able to put the Street View privacy scandal in its rear-view mirror any time soon. A newly unredacted report from federal investigators and fresh information about the engineer behind the data collecting software are casting doubt on Google's assurances that it did not realize that its street-mapping cars were snatching personal data from Wi-Fi networks used by millions of unsuspecting households....

Finally, iPad users can get LinkedIn. And the app for this tablet, released Thursday, really is more than a reformatted iPhone app. The app was designed with the functionality of the iPad and users' tablet tapping mostly in the morning and evening in mind, according to a blog post from LinkedIn. The layout is a bit reminiscent of Flipboard, with a design that integrates the multitouch navigation of the iPad. "This 'Coffee & Couch' behavior is so pronounced that we designed our new app to make every professional feel like they have their own personal assistant," it reads.

Facebook will be the top recipient of social media advertising spending this year, according to a survey from the Creative Group. The Menlo Park, Calif., outfit surveyed 500 advertising and marketing executives in the first quarter on how social media ad dollars will be spent. More than half said they expected companies to increase their advertising or marketing investment in Facebook. Other social networks such as Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube hovered around 40%. Marketers were also asked if they would decrease their spend on social media this year.